Brooks Koepka now walks among golf legends with fifth major title

Brooks Koepka won his third PGA Championship on Sunday at Oak Hill, putting his name among golf’s all-time legends with a fifth major title

Brooks Koepka had a leisurely walk down the 18th fairway at Oak Hill on Sunday afternoon, his name already being engraved on the Wanamaker Trophy for the third time. He was surrounded by a massive gallery of New York fans who have now watched him win three major championships in their home state. But his real company were names like Jack and Tiger, Phil and Watson, Trevino and Player. For Koepka now belongs among them as one of golf’s all-time greats.

Koepka’s two-shot victory over Viktor Hovland and Scottie Scheffler at the PGA Championship gave him five major titles and elevated him to a different pantheon from his peers. No other player under the age of 45 has more majors than the 33-year-old Koepka. Only Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson had won more in the previous 30 years.

He’s now tied with names such as Seve Ballesteros and Byron Nelson as one of only 20 players to win five majors. He’s just one behind Mickelson’s six and two behind the seven won by Arnold Palmer and Sam Snead. He’s done it all in a six-year stretch; it took Mickelson more than 20 years to win his fifth major. His three PGA titles have all come since 2018, making him only the third player to win three in such a short span along with Jack Nicklaus and Walter Hagen.

When he was on a Tiger-like run of dominance from 2017-19, pulling off four majors in less than two years, Koepka seemed unbeatable on the game’s biggest stages. He was unflappable and stoic as he dominated the competition.

A series of knee injuries over the past few years threatened to take all that away from him and left him questioning his own future in the game. Even at the Masters last month, when he took a two-shot lead into the final round, Koepka let it slip away. There was a chink in his armor. He ensured it would never happen again.

On Sunday in Rochester, it didn’t. He came out and birdied three of his first four holes to open a three-shot lead. Hovland crawled back and trailed by just one heading to the 16th when Koepka finally took a firm grip on the Wanamaker and ensured it was coming home with him again. Hovland couldn’t get out of a fairway bunker and made double bogey; Koepka fired his approach to five feet and made birdie. The lead was now four. The competitive portion of the 105th PGA Championship was over. Koepka finished at nine-under for the tournament with a round of 68.

Koepka reaches five majors, and he’s proven he won’t stop there

The question is no longer whether the old Koepka would ever come back and win another major. It’s now how many he can win. He’s still younger than Mickelson was when he won his first. Nicklaus won seven majors from the age of 33; Lee Trevino won half of his six majors when he was older than Koepka is now.

Koepka isn’t thinking about his legacy just yet. His mind is on going home to celebrate with wife Jena and await the birth of their first son. His chapter in the history of the game still has pages to write.

“It’s crazy. I try not to think of it right now,” he said following his victory, the Wanamaker Trophy resting beside him. “I mean, I do care about it. It’s just tough to really grasp the situation kind of while you’re still in it, I think. I mean, probably when I’m retired and I can look back with Jena and my son and kind of reflect on all that stuff, that will be truly special, but right now I’m trying to collect as many of these things as I can. We’ll see how it goes.”

Hovland and Scheffler were his main competitors on Sunday. But his company is no longer just the players of this era. Koepka is now among the biggest legends in the history of the game. He’s the most prolific major champion of his generation and still going.

On Sunday at Oak Hill, he ensured that a list of golf’s greatest players can never be complete without his name on it.